


River Maiden

by Daegaer



Category: Hetalia - Fandom
Genre: Anthropomorphic Personifications, Friendship, Gen, Historical, International Relations, historical character - Freeform, late antiquity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-07-03
Updated: 2010-07-03
Packaged: 2017-10-10 09:02:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,554
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/97962
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Daegaer/pseuds/Daegaer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><em>Poland was dear to Wanda, above all else . . .</em></p>
            </blockquote>





	River Maiden

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to [](http://puddingcat.livejournal.com/profile)[**puddingcat**](http://puddingcat.livejournal.com/) for beta-ing! For more Poland/Wanda: [The Legend of Wanda](http://www.kresy.co.uk/wanda.html). More notes at the end of the fic.

  
"Don't, like, take this the wrong way," Polans said, "but I was sort of expecting a guy." He walked around the teenager standing before him.

"And you're totally a girl."

"I am Krak's last living honourable child," Wanda said firmly, her head high. It didn't make her look any less of a kid, but she seemed to be a brave one. "I am Queen of all the Poles."

She had a point, Polans thought. With her eldest brother dead and her other brother exiled for his murder there weren't many other candidates. Anyway, it didn't matter to him that she was a girl, as long as she was up to the job. He looked her up and down and grinned. He liked the way she did her hair. "Fair enough," he said, and sat down to eat her breakfast. He was a growing populace and needed to keep his strength up, and she had been brought a _lot_ of breakfast. She shifted from foot to foot as he ate, more nervous now than when she'd thought her country wouldn't accept her. Polans sniggered through a mouthful of kiełbasa at how _silly_ people could be, and felt mildly put out that Wanda didn't laugh at herself, just looked more nervous yet as she tried to gather her dignity round her like a cloak. He imagined his nearest northern neighbour looking disapproving, telling him there was no need to be as nasty as the Christians, and pushed a chair out from the table.

  
"Sit," he said. "You need to eat and keep healthy if you're going to be my boss."

  
She did. By the time Polans had eaten three times as much as she could ever have managed, talking all the time, she had clearly forgotten to be nervous of him.

* * *

  
For an unexpected Queen who was just a kid on top of the whole girl thing, Wanda was darn effective, Polans had to admit. His people loved her, and she was unfailingly generous to everyone and brave in the face of misfortune. And she _adored_ him, which wasn't surprising. Even before he'd got just a _little_ squiffy at that Midsummer festival and flowers had sprung up in his footsteps she'd been giving him soft, secret smiles and telling her advisors she couldn't possibly marry whichever decrepit rich nobleman had bought them off this week because she loved her country too much to be distracted by such mundane thoughts. It was gratifying, but a little worrying as well.

"What about me?" he said, and poked her tummy with one finger. "Where's my next boss coming from if you don't get married?"

"The people didn't expect a queen," she said. "If I marry, my husband will be king, and I will be merely his wife. He'd rule, even though it is my right and duty." She put a hand on his cheek. "Don't worry, you'll find another ruler, though I hope not too soon."

"Sheesh," Polans muttered. "You people are so _weird_ with all this man and woman stuff. Next time I have a girl ruling me I'm gonna call her _king_ and get around this _queens can't rule_ rubbish." He put his arms round her and smiled cajolingly. "Can we go to war against the Baltic tribes? Samogitia, like, stole some of my forests and he won't give them back.

"We should make friends with them," Wanda said. "We could stand together against the incursions of the Christians."

"Just 'cos I want to go to war against him doesn't mean he's not my friend," Polans said. "It's, like, the principle of the thing. Anyway, it's not like those weirdo wannabe Romans could ever persuade my people to think like them. They only have pretend sacrifices - how's _that_ supposed to get the gods' attention?"

"Hmm," Wanda said. "They seem very determined, those Christians."

"So am I! War?"

"A little one."

Polans whooped with delight and danced out to order a new set of the shiniest armour available. The fighting didn't go as well as he'd hoped; for such a peaceful-looking fellow Samogitia was awfully happy to get up to his knees in blood and guts. Polans sighed - his army had looked so _nice_ before the Samogitians had torn through them. The one good thing was that Polans was as sneaky as he was good-looking, and while he might have lost some of his armies he'd got what he'd gone for. He giggled as he remembered how Samogitia had pushed him over, and had then looked uncomfortable and guilty as Polans sat in the dust, whimpering and letting his eyes fill up with tears. _Poor Baltic twit_, Polans thought at the glorious memory of Samogitia laying aside his weapons and hunkering down to see if he was all right, worry in his kind, green eyes. He really hadn't expected to be wrestled down into the dirt and to have his head sat on till he promised to give the forests back. Polans skipped a little with victorious glee - as long as he could stay out of trouble for a few years, he thought, he'd have plenty of new people to fill up the ranks again.

"Oh, hey, Wanda," he said, looking up as she came towards him, "you're looking nice - can I try that dress on later?"

"Put on something respectable," Wanda said. "An embassy from a German prince is here to see me."

"Germans, pffft," Polans said, and went to scrub his face and put on his fancy seeing-foreign-ambassadors clothes. He could play with his regained territory later.

The ambassadors were nothing to write home about, he thought. They wore nasty, unfashionable clothes and had a beady-eyed way of looking round them as if they were adding up the value of everything they saw. It was infuriating, and was worse when dinner was served and they recited long, ostentatious spells in Latin over their food, like he was trying to _poison_ them.

"They're Christian prayers," Wanda whispered, when he complained.

"Huh. Well, maybe I'll pray too," Polans said. "We can be, like, totally ecumenical. Hail, Swarożyc -" The ambassadors seemed scandalized by him invoking the gods, he was delighted to see, so he prayed harder and louder than he usually did, and pretended he couldn't hear Wanda telling him to at least not invoke the gods of war.

After dinner the ambassadors made long speeches about how Wanda was famous for her beauty and wisdom, and how her country was famed for its wealth and fertile lands. Polans narrowed his eyes. It wasn't that he wasn't flattered, but that kind of talk usually came with a proposition attached, and he was happy being single.

"A letter from my master, the most noble prince Rytigier," the lead ambassador said, handing a sealed letter over and standing there expectantly like he expected the freaking Queen of all the Poles to read it there and then and have a reply ready. Polans itched to knock him over and kick him while he was down.

Wanda broke the seal and read the letter. Polans felt something within him shrivel at the look on her face as she sat back, pale and horrified. He rudely turned his back to the ambassadors and twitched the letter from her hands, staring at it in disgust as he saw it was in Latin. _Stupid freaking Christians_, he thought, and put a hand on Wanda's arm, not sure if he were glad or not that she could read it.

"What is it?" he whispered.

"Rytigier demands my hand in marriage," she said. "He says it is common knowledge that my armies have been depleted and I cannot properly defend my realm - he demands that I bring him as my dowry all the lands of the Poles, and that I and all my people accept Christianity -"

"Screw _that_," Polans said in outrage.

"Madam, you will chastise this insolent child," the lead ambassador said, his smile smug and mean. "Such uncouth manners will not serve him well in my master's court."

"I will not chastise him, nor will I marry your master," Wanda said. "When I became queen I swore myself to Polans before all others and I will have no other husband."

"Madam, you will come freely or you will be taken by force," the ambassador said, his smile wider and nastier. "You will both sit by the prince's feet."

"Stop," Wanda said as Polans jumped forward, ready to cause a diplomatic incident - they might see a kid when they looked at him, he thought, but he was older than all the people in the room put together and a lot meaner when he had to be - "they are not to be harmed." She held his hand as the ambassadors bowed with scant courtesy and left. Polans kept an eye on them all the way to the border, noting that they clearly didn't believe it was safe to stay in his territories. _Too freaking right_, he thought in fury.

"Good riddance," he said to Wanda. "You can't marry a German, I mean, did you _see_ what they were _wearing?_"

"Polans, Rytigier threatens war if I refuse him," Wanda said. "His armies are famous, and he is a cruel warrior. I can't let him invade."

"We'll be fine," Polans said. "Let me do your hair, you'll feel better - "

"Many of my people will be afraid and think I should marry him to save their lives," Wanda said. "If I were not the queen, perhaps I'd think that too." She looked down, gathering her thoughts. "If enough of the people wanted me to marry him, would you want that?"

"No," Polans said, because he knew when his bosses wanted him to lie to them. "Besides, they don't want it."

"They will once the German armies invade," she said. "In a hundred years' time, Polans, perhaps you will speak the invaders' language and have forgotten what you once were."

"Nuh-huh," Polans said. "Not possible. We'll fight - you're a great commander, and we'll get Samogitia and his brothers to back us up -"

"Even though we were just at war with his people?" Wanda said.

Polans heaved a sigh. "I'll let him have one freaking forest of mine, and as long as he has enough time to, like, centralize his people a bit, and join us, and get his brothers to stop futzing round and grow up a smidgen, and maybe if we, like, grab the Prussian tribes as well - yeah, it's easy. We can totally hold off all of the Frankish empire."

Wanda looked at him bleakly. "You speak of things that will take years, Polans. Human lives are shorter and faster than yours, and we do not have the time. With so many new peoples joining us so quickly, we might - _you_ might - forget who we are."

"Don't be silly," Polans said. "I'm the freaking Polans tribes - how could I forget that?"

"You are talking about taking other tribes' territories and people," Wanda said. "You couldn't just be the Polans then, you'd something else; a nation of many peoples." While Polans cocked his head and thought about being a _nation_, and wondered if he'd like that, the despair deepened in her face and she went on, "Even if we could do as you say, it would be out of fear, and fear is what will divide the people and make many seek surrender. We need something else, something that will catch the spirits of the people and give them something else to use." She stood, brushing down her skirts. "I must go and think."

"I'll talk to Samogitia," Polans said.

"Don't be too long," Wanda said, and walked silently to her rooms.

* * *

Polans was reluctantly handing over one of his newly-regained forests and trying not to gloat too much at Samogitia's black eye when a cold feeling of dread washed over him, leaving him shivering and weak.

"Ugh," he said, wrapping his arms round himself. "How can you, like, live here up near the coast? It's _freezing_."

"It's perfectly warm," Samogitia said, tucking the forest away. "I'm planning on expanding south, so you won't have so far to come to be annoying." He looked quizzically at Polans. "Are you all right? You're really pale and sick-looking."

"I _feel_ sick," Polans said, trying to isolate the feeling of wrongness. " - My _boss_," he said. "I've got to go -" He turned and ran, his territory flashing past, and skidded to a stop outside Krakow.

Wanda was waiting for him on the other side of the Vistula, dressed in her finest royal robes, her crown bright and golden against her hair. Behind her, her maidens wept and tore at their hair and clothes in mourning and beside her priests stood silent and ready. They were carrying sacrificial knives, Polans saw, his mind refusing to take it in.

"I prayed all night and got my answer. I know now how to ensure that the gods will keep you safe," Wanda said, and her voice hardly shook at all.

"Wanda -" he said.

"Don't argue," she said. "It's my duty to protect my country and my people, and it's as you said - what good is a pretend sacrifice? Isn't this better than the people being afraid and forgetting who they are?" She half-turned to the priests and nodded. As Polans screamed one of them cut her throat, and they shoved her into the water.

Polans leapt into the river, making the water draw back, but it was fast-flowing and she was already gone, her heavy robes dragging her down to be jostled by the deep currents. He let the water swirl back around him and waded across, coming out dry and angry. The priests stepped back quickly, so he guessed he wasn't his usual amicable and harmless-looking self.

"She will now be with you forever," one of the priests said, taking another step back as he advanced.

"That's not how these things work," Polans said, feeling the anger and sorrow grow greater and greater. The people would come together, and not out of fear, he could feel it. She'd been right, and he wished she had had any other answer. He turned away and walked downstream with a heavy heart.

He'd find her and bury her, and then he'd join the armies. In a hundred years, he promised silently - in a freaking _thousand_ \- he wouldn't forget this, and he would never forget who he was.

 

* * * *

  
Notes, historical and Hetalia:

The Wanda legend (linked above) is set during Poland's pagan past, but is [first recorded in the mediaeval period](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Wanda). In some versions it is the German prince who drowns, while Wanda lives. Wanda also appears in some versions of the [Wawel Dragon](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wawel_Dragon) legend, as the princess offered to the man who can kill the dragon. A [prehistoric monument in Krakow](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wanda_Mound) is the traditional site of her grave. Dvorak wrote an [opera on the legend](http://www.alkor-edition.com/wandaeng.htm), making use of the idea of a conflict between paganism and Christianity. In Hetalia, while Poland and Lithuania first meet when Jadwiga of Poland and Jogaila of Lithuania marry, here they know each other under different names, [Polans](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polans_\(western\)) and [Samogitia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samogitians) (lowland Lithuania). During the period of this story, the [Kingdom of the Franks](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolingian_Empire#The_Empire_until_the_Treaty_of_Verdun_.28814_-_840.29) is divided, but not yet the later Holy Roman Empire and France. Prince Rytigier/Rüdiger/Roderich is a legendary figure.


End file.
